Thursday, March 31, 2011

you must must must read this book. i read all 384 pages yesterday (although, it's not really pages when they're being read off my Kindle). yes, i even missed american idol and my other wednesday night shows to finish this page-turner. it's the first book of 3. which you KNOW i'll be starting the second one as soon as i'm done with this post.

here's a little snip-it of what it's about:

In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives. Collins's characters are completely realistic and sympathetic as they form alliances and friendships in the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

my new work schedule is from 7am to 4pm. yesterday i was set up with an alarm code since i'd be the first person at work and would have to disarm the alarm....

so this morning, i get to work at about 6:50am, unlock the door, hear the beeping of the alarm, run over to enter my code....and nothing happens!! i enter it again....nothing. beep...beep...BEEEP...BEEEEP!!!!!

it gets so loud! so, i call the number listed in case this happens and the lady has no idea what she's doing. she says, "i'm sorry ma'am. if your code is not working, then you probably have the wrong one." ummm....really?

finally i had to call and wake up a co-worker (sorry, sandra) to use her code...which worked immediately.

anyway...on to WEDNESDAY THANKS---

i am thankful for...

**my brother...for coming to hang out with his lonely sister last night when no one else was available...we played pool and had margaritas and yummy tacos at Fred's.

**starbucks...you have given me the strength i need to get through many of my days...

**padres, roomie, and my work for announcing all the games they're giving free tickets out to us to sit in their BOX SEATS! ...starting this month!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

so i've lost about 10 pounds since christmas. 8 of them being from the last week and a half. thanks (ex)boyfriend. why are break-ups so difficult? and why do they leave me with no appetite? my lunch has consisted of jamba juice (strawberry nirvana, to be exact) for the last 8 days. then i get home, hang out with roomie, and forget to eat again..oh well, if i keep this up, summer bikini time will be good to me.

last night, roomie went on a date. she's awfully picky (like me) and said she'll probably just make this one "a friend." she said he had nice arms, not so nice face, and was so quiet she was running out of things to say. regardless, i commend her for giving it a try!

enjoy your taco tuesday! i will be having one big margarita (or three).

Monday, March 28, 2011

this past weekend has left me drained. roomie had her 25th birthday (which she has had several meltdowns saying she is now a quarter of a century and "old."). we went to PB and had some drinks (and then some) with friends saturday night. it was nice going out and being with the girls. it was weird putting on the "single" hat again. but refreshing, all the same. we stayed up till 5 in the morning and i didn't get out of bed until 2:30pm yesterday. yikes.

my mamma left this morning to go back to georgia. i will miss her terribly and am so thankful i got to spend this last week with her. she has definitely pumped me full of pep-talks and positivity. love you mom.

This week has been such an emotional roller coaster for me. You think you know someone and then BAM, it's like you got hit over the head with a brick. With that said, I gave myself a week to cry like a baby (again, thank you tinted windows and to my mamma and roomie for listening to me blubber), but now it is time to pick myself up and move on! Reminds me of that Destiny's Child song..."If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again...." I need to pull out my inner Beyonce and dust myself off! No? Is that stretching it too far? You mean I DON'T remind you of Beyonce??

Hope you all enjoy your Friday. I will do my very best. No guarantees.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Last night I had that dream again...the one where I'm back in High School and I'm late for a class. It's such a stressful dream and I have no idea why, seeing as I never stressed about being late when I was actuallyin High School. But this particular dream, before class, I somehow was able to look at my homework assignments that had been graded for Math class. I was looking at very BELOW average grades! I couldn't believe my eyes! Then I looked at my friend's scores and they were SO. Much. Better. I was way jealous and baffled because MishLove does not get poor grades!...Then somehow, Bradley Cooper showed up and was hanging out with all of us, and I don't really remember much from there...but I guess that's beside the point.

Anyway...guess the stress this week has been seeping into my dream life...

Friday, March 18, 2011

...Looking at someone and not being able to tell if they're pregnant or not. Then seeing them catch you staring at their belly and quickly try to avert your eyes elsewhere. Then that person doesn't say a word, but only continues to stare back at you. Which makes you think even more that they're NOT preggo. It's almost as if they're saying, "Yeah. I dare you. Ask me!" So...yeah. Pretty awkward sitchy-sitch. Especially when it's a co-worker. It's not like I can never see that person again (although I will try my hardest to make run-ins as infrequent as possible). And now, when I DO see that person, I'll have to try extra hard to only look above the waist. Which will probably make it more awkward.

Okay, enough with the awkward thoughts.

Happy Friday!

Here are some pictures of Roomie, and Me at Bennigan's for St. Patty's!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

To be honest with you...I always thought it was: Top OFF the mornin' to ya....I stand mistaken. Again, thank you Google. You have once again saved me from actin' a fool.

This morning I woke with slight anxiety...Okay, that's probably a bit of an exaggeration, but I did have a question at the forefront of my mind....What do I possibly own in my closet that is GREEN?? Then I immediately followed that question with: At what age will I stop stressing about what green I can wear so I don't get pinched? I mean, can I really expect a grown adult to come up to me and pinch me because I'm not wearing green? That would probably be really awkward and maybe a slight violation of personal bubble space.

Needless to say, I ended up finding a green tank on the floor of my closet (shocker)...Smelled clean enough.

Moving on to the next subject... Let me just inform you that I have Nev-ah been a "Sports Girl." I was the girl that only watched the Super Bowl for the commercials. I would bring US Weekly and People magazines to entertain me while past boyfriends would watch any type of sports game on the telly.I would complain and pout if my guy wanted to go watch a game. I mean... why? It's BORING.

Then something happened...Boyfriend came into the picture. I slowly found myself paying a little more attention to what was going on in a basketball or football game (Okay, so maybe I was just checking out which player I thought was cute). I would hear myself ask a question about the game and what a particular term meant. I shocked myself when I heard myself yell unexpectedly, which I could only take to be a cheer for a particular team. Who is this girl? How am I starting to care about sports? Lakers? Don't mind if I do...Padres? Yes, please. Chargers? Sign me up!

You won't believe what I'm doing right now...I'm listening to the live College Basketball game for WVU and Clemson because last night, Boyfriend helped me fill out my bracket for March Madness. Again...WHO. AM. I?? I've found that watching sports can not only be fun, but it's actually nice to do something with Boyfriend that HE enjoys a lot. I mean, the poor guy sits through American Idol, The Bachelor, and various Chick Flicks for me (even though, like I mentioned before, I'm positive he loves them almost as much as I do). The least I can do is put in some effort to enjoy his "Man Flicks."

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

-living in Southern California in March where it's 75 degrees and on my lunch break I am meeting Boyfriend at his pool to lay out and get some sun!

-today being Wednesday...because that means TOMORROW IS MAUI!!! Whoo hoo!

-the Mega Millions lottery! It is up to $151 million!!!!!!!!! Those little $5.00 tickets I buy give me such joy and excitement...it's really about the little things that make me happy. And who knows...maybe I'll be the next winner!

-my job. Though, I am sitting at a desk all day, highly unchallenged with no real future mapped out, I am still thankful to have a job and get paid to do what I do. It also allows me to Facebook and blog stalk as I please.

Today is ASH WEDNESDAY. I'll be honest with you. I just Googled it because I'm not remotely familiar with what it is exactly. All I know is that it's the first day of Lent...which lasts for 46 days (until Easter) and a common practice is to pick something in your life that you want to give up or sacrifice. I just had a convo with my Mamma about what we could give up. Since I'd like to see some results from this experiment, I am going to give up all FRIED FOODS (cheeseburgers, Rubio's burritos, french fries, etc). Sadly, those are things that bring immense joy to my life....Mom is going to give up all sugar (except alcohol sugar of course. I mean, let's be real here). So...... Let the count down begin!!!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Just for fun, I entered into the contest for writing an essay on our experience from the Spartan Mud Race. I know, you're probably sick of hearing about this, but I'm sharing anyway! Plus, if I win, I'll get some sweet new running shoes!

Remember that Captain Planet theme song? "Earth! Fire! Wind! Water! Heart!" Those five words pretty much sum up my experience this past Saturday at the SoCal Spartan Race. They should probably add in a 6th element though....MUD! Lots of it. I'm still amazed and oh so proud of myself for completing those eight. long. miles. It was not easy and it was unlike anything I ever expected.

I heard about this Spartan race about 5 weeks prior to "D-Day." Take note, I am not a competitive athlete (unless you count Beer Pong). My brother wanted me to sign up with him, enticing me with words like, "It'll be FUN! Not hard at ALL! We can go SLOW if you want!" Also take note, he originally told me it would only be THREE miles. I thought to myself, "What the heck, Michelle. You've always wanted to do this. Go for it, it's only three miles!" I then turned around and enticed my boyfriend with the same words that convinced me. To my horror, after I clicked "Pay Now," I realized it was EIGHT miles...not three. Oh dear God. What did I get myself into?

Training went a little something like this:

Week 1: Ran 2 miles.... In 38 minutes. And when I say ran, I really mean ran for about 5 minutes and walked the rest. Off to a great start, right? Um. Wrong.

Week 2: All the treadmills at the gym were taken and of course it was far too cold to run outside, so I had to skip that week. What? It wasn’t my fault.

Week 3: Felt mucho pressure from my brother and was tired of him calling me lazy, so I ran/walked about 4 miles and called it a day.

Week 4: Treadmills were taken again, so I hopped on the bike for about 17 miles in 60 minutes. I felt accomplished. Brother said it was a cop-out.

Week 5. Had an “oh shit” moment when I realized the race was in 4 days. Boyfriend and I took to the streets and ran 3 straight miles in 30 minutes. I literally thought I would pass out and my lungs would explode.

D-Day was finally here! You could just feel the excitement and energy wafting in the atmosphere as we drove up to the site. I told myself as long as I finished under 2 ½ hours, I would be happy.

We were off! Less than 30 seconds in, we jumped over fire and immediately submerged our lower halves in ice cold water. If that didn’t wake you up, I don’t know what would. Then we ran, and ran, and walked, and ran some more. I had no idea we would be running up steep, treacherous mountains!But alas, there I was, in the herd, huffing and puffing away. The rush from the whole experience made it so worthwhile; The support you get from a total stranger, that competitive drive that emerges when you climb over 6 ft high walls, thinking you’re at your breaking point but then somehow overcoming that and pushing onward.

We finished in 2 hours and 1 minute. I surprised myself. I surprised my brother. I am still riding that high of accomplishing something I never could imagine for myself. Though I can barely walk and look like I’ve been in a gang fight from all the bruises and scratches, I am so happy I did this and would definitely do it all over again.